Ken Ono

Amir D. Aczel

How I Learned to Count

My Search for Ramanujan

"The son of a prominent Japanese mathematician who came to the United States after World War II, Ken Ono was raised on a diet of high expectations and little praise. Rebelling against his pressure-cooker of a life, Ken determined to drop out of high school to follow his own path. To obtain his father’s approval, he invoked the biography of the famous Indian mathematical prodigy Srinivasa Ramanujan, whom his father revered, who had twice flunked out of college because of his single-minded devotion to mathematics. Ono describes his rocky path through college and graduate school, interweaving Ramanujan’s story with his own and telling how at key moments, he was inspired by Ramanujan and guided by mentors who encouraged him to pursue his interest in exploring Ramanujan’s mathematical legacy. Picking up where others left off, beginning with the great English mathematician G.H. Hardy, who brought Ramanujan to Cambridge in 1914, Ono has devoted his mathematical career to understanding how in his short life, Ramanujan was able to discover so many deep mathematical truths, which Ramanujan believed had been sent to him as visions from a Hindu goddess. And it was Ramanujan who was ultimately the source of reconciliation between Ono and his parents. Ono’s search for Ramanujan ranges over three continents and crosses paths with mathematicians whose lives span the globe and the entire twentieth century and beyond. Along the way, Ken made many fascinating discoveries. The most important and surprising one of all was his own humanity."

Bruce C. Berndt

Robert A. Rankin, one of the world's foremost authorities on modular forms and a founding editor of The Ramanujan Journal, died on January 27, 2001, at the age of 85. Rankin had broad interests and contributed fundamental papers in a wide variety of areas within number theory, geometry, analysis, and algebra. To commemorate Rankin's life and work, the editors have collected together 25 papers by several eminent mathematicians reflecting Rankin's extensive range of interests within number theory. Many of these papers reflect Rankin's primary focus in modular forms. It is the editors' fervent hope that mathematicians will be stimulated by these papers and gain a greater appreciation for Rankin's contributions to mathematics. This volume would be an inspiration to students and researchers in the areas of number theory and modular forms.

Papers in Memory of Robert A. Rankin

Number Theory and Modular Forms

Modular forms appear in many ways in number theory. They play a central role in the theory of quadratic forms, in particular, as generating functions for the number of representations of integers by positive definite quadratic forms. They are also key players in the recent spectacular proof of Fermat's Last Theorem. Modular forms are at the center of an immense amount of current research activity. Also detailed in this volume are other roles that modular forms and $q$-series play in number theory, such as applications and connections to basic hypergeometric functions, Gaussian hypergeometric functions, super-congruences, Weierstrass points on modular curves, singular moduli, class numbers, $L$-values, and elliptic curves.The first three chapters provide some basic facts and results on modular forms, which set the stage for the advanced areas that are treated in the remainder of the book. Ono gives ample motivation on topics where modular forms play a role. Rather than cataloging all of the known results, he highlights those that give their flavor. At the end of most chapters, he gives open problems and questions. The book is an excellent resource for advanced graduate students and researchers interested in number theory.

Arithmetic of the Coefficients of Modular Forms and Q-series

The Web of Modularity

Bruce (University of Illinois Berndt

The subject of $q$-series can be said to begin with Euler and his pentagonal number theorem. In fact, $q$-series are sometimes called Eulerian series. Contributions were made by Gauss, Jacobi, and Cauchy, but the first attempt at a systematic development, especially from the point of view of studying series with the products in the summands, was made by E. Heine in 1847. In the latter part of the nineteenth and in the early part of the twentieth centuries, two English mathematicians, L. J. Rogers and F. H. Jackson, made fundamental contributions.In 1940, G. H. Hardy described what we now call Ramanujan's famous $_1\psi_1$ summation theorem as 'a remarkable formula with many parameters'. This is now one of the fundamental theorems of the subject. Despite humble beginnings, the subject of $q$-series has flourished in the past three decades, particularly with its applications to combinatorics, number theory, and physics. During the year 2000, the University of Illinois embraced The Millennial Year in Number Theory. One of the events that year was the conference $q$-Series with Applications to Combinatorics, Number Theory, and Physics. This event gathered mathematicians from the world over to lecture and discuss their research. This volume presents nineteen of the papers presented at the conference. The excellent lectures that are included chart pathways into the future and survey the numerous applications of $q$-series to combinatorics, number theory, and physics.

Ken Ono

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